Wireless radio frequency (RF) network architectures, wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wireless network devices and accessories are becoming increasingly popular. WLANs can give mobile computing clients the ability to “roam” or physically move from place to place without being connected by wires. In the context of a WLAN, the term “roaming” describes the act of physically moving between wireless access devices, which may be stand-alone wireless access points, wireless access ports that cooperate with one or more wireless switches located in the WLAN, or other suitably configured devices or components. Many deployments of wireless computer infrastructure, such as WLANs, involve the use of multiple wireless switches serving a number of wireless access devices.
Some wireless network administrators utilize software-based tools for purposes of planning, managing, diagnosing, and monitoring WLANs. Planning features in software of this type can generate RF coverage maps in conjunction with the floor plan in which the WLAN will be deployed. Such planning features allow the network administrator to determine how best to provide for RF coverage in the floor plan. However, such planning software relies on RF models for purposes of RF coverage estimations. The use of RF models can be useful to provide a baseline configuration, but RF models may not accurately account for real world operating characteristics and variations caused by the environment. Moreover, even if planning software is utilized, the wireless access devices still need to be manually configured with their respective RF operating characteristics, namely, the wireless channel and the transmit power level. Such manual configuration can be time consuming and costly, especially if the wireless network deployment includes a large number of wireless access devices.